ABGA questions

[Donna1982]

Well I cannot believe I am going to say this... we are talking about getting back into Boer . We had a commercial herd for years and years and sold out all but two girls when mom and step dad moved here to Oklahoma. The last few months we have talked about buying a registered buck to get back into meat and something for my niece to show in FFA (the wethers and does that is). So the my question is can someone help me explain the percentage thing?

So you can register does out of a Purebred or American bred and an unknown parent correct? So if we were to buy a doe or a buck that was purebred we can register kids out of them?

[mygoat]

ABGA just allowed does to be included in the percentage program. Some boer breeders were upset about this because in boers, its a 'sire driven' industry... even though both parents contribute to genetics, lol. I don't know if the petitions going around ever revoked the purebred doe rule. ETA - it doesn't look to have changed.

Here are all the rules about registration percentages: http://abga.org/about-abga/rules-regulations/

Fullbloods have no history of crosses. American Purebreds are 97% or higher for bucks, or 94% or higher for does. You can never get higher than purebred once they are crossed somewhere. (Same as american vs purebred in ADGA). A buck less than 97% is NOT eligible to produce registered offspring.

EVERYTHING about boers is more expensive. If you're going to go registered, I suggest 'going big' and spending money on quality stock. The registry is expensive to join/keep up, the bucks are REQUIRED to be DNA'd, semen is expensive, stud fee is expensive. There are a lot of crappy boers out there... If it were me getting back into them again, I'd go purchase a couple nice bred does and contact breeders about bucklings in spring (I'd want him disbudded, which is NOT common in boers and largely frowned upon), and then use that starter group and AI to expand my herd (this also helps with disease problems). Once you have a goodly number, cull heavily for parasites and feet especially.

[Frosted Mini's]

It just doesn't make any sense at all to me and never has that boers would be more expensive than dairy goats. PER goat, a dairy goats are much more productive and therefore more return on investment. Maybe it's just a supply/demand thing...